SF Armory.

I had a chance 2 days ago to stop by the old Armory in SF. 14th and Mission. The building, surprisingly enough, is pretty inocuous and slips your sight if you don't pay much attention to it. It is surprisingly bigger than what it appears while driving by it too. The building was built over Mission Creek, which still runs under it, and housed the National Guard, after being completed in 1914, in the style of an old Moorish Castle. It stayed in use until 1978, when it was designated as a historical site. Some much planned condos were put by the wayside, after they encountered much community resistance. Eventually, it was quietly sold to a company, which now leases it to it's current occupants.... Kink.com :D


Parking outside, with seemingly no entrance, and no signs anywhere.
The indoor photo is of a window, lining the side of the 39,000 square foot drill court. The windows housed anti-aircraft guns that could fire over the city and into the bay. pretty cool shit.

Underground/basement walk through shows, on the right, the indoor rifle range, which is pretty significant in size, and to the rear of that photo is Mission Creek.

On the left is a movie prop, used for...well.....you can distinguish, that that is a chainsaw belt, with tongues attached. :D haha Johnny Five, is alive!! There were underground horse stables, which have since been converted into movie sets.

I'll have to go back for the official tour, but it was still a great day to get inside such a historic building. As well, as touring along with it's current occupants. :D

The Stinkin' Rose, SF. 7-6-10

The Stinking Rose
325 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, Ca.
94133

So I've been in the bay area for about 5 years now, on and off, traveling back and forth, and out for contracts.....and probably about a year into being here, I heard of a restaurant named "The Stinkin' Rose". A restaurant that specialized in using Garlic as it's main, if not primary ingredient in all of it's dishes. As some of you may know, Gilroy is the self professed garlic capital of the world, and just south of San Jose, Ca. Each year they have a garlic festival, and you can smell it for miles and miles.

I had heard varying reviews, and one of them was that this place was overpriced and more hype than worth it. well, screw it, I really like Garlic, and wanted to try out this place, so, I finally made it out for some dinner, with Lindsey.

We started off with some roasted garlic cloves in olive oil sauce, with bread on the side. The garlic simply smushes onto the bread like butter.....garlicy butter. DELISHIOUS!!!!!!

Followed by a little Garlic and Fontina cheese fondue. Holy smokes, if nothing else, you have to get this. So good...I could have eaten 2 orders by myself...but I was saving myself for the Piece de resistance.

I ordered the Lamb Shank, in chianti sauce with farva beans, and a nice side of garlic mashed potatos, with cream spinach. I have to say right away, that the meat was so tender, soft and juicy, that I immediately seemed to go into a food coma when I began to eat it. hahahaha

Lamb can be weird to cook, and sometimes gets to dry. Not here. It was succulent, tasty, well complimented, and definitely a dish I could see myself eating a lot of. Needless to say I finished the whole thing, and we rolled out of this restaurant.

It's definitely somewhere that you will need a reservation on a busy weeknight, but we walked in about 7pm on a weekday, and they had plenty of tables available. It's surprisingly roomie inside, and there is a row of private tables, more suited for 2 people, but definitely will hold 4 people in a cozy and private setting, around the side. The waiters are a little tardy and innattentive...but not by much. Not enough to be a problem, that's for sure...and I personally like to be left alone when I'm eating, instead of having a waiter constantly by to ask, how I'm doing.

all in all a great dining experience in North Beach.

more INK...left side started.

So I finally got the appointment that I wanted with a guy in San Francisco, Tim Lehi at Blackeart Tattoo.

I had heard of Tim about 8 years ago, when living in Seattle. A friend of mine had a lot of tattoo work, and most of it had been done by Tim. He recommended him, and the work looked fantastic. Imagine my surprise when I walked into Blackheart one day, just looking at artist renditions, and asked if they knew of Tim Lehi...they in turn said to me that he worked there. hahaha what a coincedence. I had been going to the bar next door for a couple years now and never knew. geez.

anyway, I got a call that he had about 2 hours free on Saturday afternoon, after being put on the cancellation phone list, mostly because I live right here in SF.

So Saturday afternoon, I went in for some work to start the left arm. It is the female companion Foo Dog (Chinese Lion) of the one rendered on my right arm.

I'm pretty excited to see the work as it progresses and this piece took Tim a little under two hours to do. damn. :D

Sunset in SF. (spring has returned)

Friday night, last week, I had the day off and spent it with a good friend. We ran around town on the motorcycle and seeing the fog coming in, we went to Treasure Island to watch the sunset, and down a couple 40's on the rocks. Pretty cool site.
After a while, we got bored, and I decided we should try and make it to the other side of town and see what the sunset looked like from Ocean Beach. A quick ride across the city breaking minimum traffic laws and we were here. as seen in photo.

great time. great sunset, and so glad to see that Spring is back in the bay. :D

Snoop-a-loop, at the Fillmore, 3/3/10

Went to see Snoop Dogg at the Fillmore in SF. He was 2 1/2 hours late for his start, and had a bunch of music and rappers jumping on and off stage before he came on. They played his movie "Malice in Wonderland", and I guess it was to make it seem like the concert was long, when in reality, he just played 50 minutes worth of a show when he finally came on.

Don't get me wrong, once he played, he rocked it...or is that rapped it...but damn, if I'd known that was his schtick, I woulda shown up 2 hours later. cool poster though, and at least I can say I saw Snoop D.O. double G.

Lucky 13, S.F., moto meet

Flew into S.F. and finally made one of the motorcycle meets....we held it at the Lucky 13 Bar, on Market. PBR tall cans, and then rounded it out with a few at Benders on the way home. Good night.

Candlestick Park, SF.....check.

I've been catching up on so many trips, events and adventures, and will be posting up more photos soon.

I went to catch a live NFL football game last month with some co-workers. It was the SF 49er's vs Seattle Seahawks at Candlestick Park....and seeing as how it is a historic sporting venue, and I only live 2 miles from this place, I had to come check it out. Not only that, but there is talk of building the new 49'er stadium and this one might be demolished.

Had loads of fun, with what little sleep (2 hours) I'd had, since I worked the night before, and then we tailgated right up until kick off. It was super hot, and next time, I know what seats to buy, so that the afternoon sun is covered by the stadium walls for some shade. Basically, across from where we were sitting. LOL

The Doobie Brothers...

...at the Filmore. Ha! I forgot to put up this little gem, as I was going through my photos in my phone, I found these. September 10th, 2009

Went to the Filmore back in September, and caught this show. Killer music.

Iron chef cookoff 10-10-09

So a few months ago, Stephanie came to me with an idea that she'd been throwing around, and since she is a big foodie, and has her own blog about it...we decided to collaborate on some cooking and friendly competition. The first attempt ended horribly wrong,with the wrong people invited. hahahaha They were just the wrong fit. So after nixing that event, it went by the wayside. Jump to a month later, and I emailed Steph, and said, it is time to do this thing, and do it right. I offered to do a lot of the leg work, and invite the right cooks.
After talking amongst the cooks, we decided on my kitchen being the most central location in the Bay Area, as we'd have someone from Napa, Ca. another from Sacramento, Ca. and steph, down in San Jose, Ca. :)

The plan is to have an Iron Chef cookoff, with one ingredient made known to the chefs....it will be up to them to decide what they want to cook. The scoring will be based on 1) Originality of the dish. 2) Plating/Presentation and 3) Taste. (We initially had a time limit, but when Steph started cooking, we forgot to hit the stop watch. hahaha) so no time limit.

The secret ingredient would be...........SCALLOPS!

The cooks did not know who the judges would be, and the judges did not know who the cooks would be, as we are all friends, and I did not want any bias to be had before hand.

Cooks:
Stephanie
Virginia
Marco
Judges:
Myself
Dave
Linda and Brian

The day started off just right, as I'd gone up to Napa the day before, and with Virginias help picked out some great cheeses and food for the appetizers and what we would be grazing on, most of the day. There would be a lot of food. Being that I was hosting at my place, I wanted to make sure the kitchen was well stocked, and clean so each cook had an equal opportunity.

My contribution below. I decided on (with Virginias help), proschiutto wrapped figs for one of the apps.
Ingredients:
Figs of various sizes
Proschiutto
Italian Cream cheese
Reduced Balsalmic Vinagrette (till it's like syrup)
pepper

Mix reduced Balsalmic Vinagrette into the Italian cream cheese, till it's brown, and put some pepper in it to taste.
then smear the cream cheese on the cut figs, then wrap a small piece of proschiutto around it.
viola...instant appetizer.
(To reduce the balsalmic vinagrette, take a large bottle, into a sauce pan, under medium heat, till you see small/tiny bubbles, and continue to reduce till it is syrup in nature, then put into a squeeze bottle and ready for use)
Next, Caprese. Some wild and organic tomatos for taste and color, a baguette, cut into small pieces toasted with olive oil, and a piece of tomato on each, with a piece of mozzarella on each, and some shredded basil leaves, then olive oil drizzled on top, and then reduced balsalmic vinagrette drizzled on top of that. second appetizer. :D

The beginnings of an awesome day of eating and drinking. Above, the finished product, figs wrapped with proschiutto. (I used to much proschiutto on the figs..hahaha not a horrible thing though)

Some great color to the meal. And my presentation to the group.

The finished Caprese, which was freaking delicious. Steph hand stamped each letter and number on the score cards that we would use. And the final spread I provided for the judges and cooks for the day.

First up would be Steph as she prepared a sesame seed encrusted scallop on a bed of glass noodles...much more involved, and I'll let you guys read about it HERE...

Some scallop goodness. The guys out on the balcony overlooking the bay on a really nice and sunny day. The best part, is that the Blue Angels were flying over the bay, and visible from our balcony, and also they'd buzz our neighborhood while flying over from SFO.

Stephs plating was done, and she presented 4 dishes to the 4 judges, and after a bit of explaining about the dish, we had our taste, and then made some notes for the scoring.

Next up, would be Virginia (things worked out perfect, as Virginia and Marco had early morning committments and fit right into the cooking schedule that we set up without a hitch) She brought her chef jacket, probably for a little intimidation..and I think this is when Steph downed a couple extra glasses of wine.

Cooking with butter, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a fantastic thing. A quick view from our balcony over the bay, and that is Oakland/Alameda in the background.

Virginias 1st dish (yes, she made two) was a cauliflower puree topped with olive oil, and the seared Scallops, with Mache (greens) on top. Holy hell, this was good too. The judges dug right in.

A quick shot of the secret ingredients, and Virginias 2nd dish....Scallops on a bed of rissotto, with strips of Parmesan cheese on top, and some micro greens. Dave and I embellishing on the wine, and me representing the KIMCHI. hahaha Again, the meals were fantastic.

Marco finaly showed up, and would be the final cook. He started off with some homemade pasta that him and his son had made earlier in the day, and made a coconut milk sauce, covered over the scallops with a slice of Dutch Crunch bread on the side. Holy hell it was great.

The Judging would be tough, as all the dishes were amazing in their own right.

The judges were varied, especially since Dave did not eat seafood, and had never had an interest in scallops. He ate every dish without a problem...which to me is a very flattering move to the cooks, showing how good these dishes were.

After much deliberation, and many things taken into account, the tally was up, and the score was final. We gave feed back to the cooks and how we came to our conclusions...but in the end, everyone was a winner due to the amount of food, good wine and dessert (truffles rolled in cocoa powder with a nice bottle of port on the side) provided by me to all.

The standings

Virginia won 1st place (we only scored one of her dishes, btw)

Stephanie won 2nd

and Marco won 3rd.

All in all, a great success, and we are already planning another one.